In a little more than two weeks, Berezny will retire after working 35 years for the Flint School District.

Someone following Berezy through the school cannot dawdle or they’ll be left behind. He runs his school with the same focus he had when he started with the district as a community school director at Homedale Elementary in 1977.

In 1982, Berezny became the community school director at Neithercut Elementary and was there until the district did away with the program in 1990. That was the year he became assistant principal at Durant-Turri-Mott.

“My goal was to be a community school director. I had no aspirations to be a principal,” Berezny said. “I didn’t forget where I came from. I kept the community education philosophy and I lived by it.

“It’s a total partnership with the staff, parents and community. We make decisions and the decisions are solely in the best interest of the child.”

Durant-Tuuri-Mott is the third largest building in the Flint School District, with nearly 600 students and about 90 staff.

Every morning, Berezny is in by 7:30 a.m. going through emails, touring the building and visiting with teachers and students.

After visiting with the some children at breakfast, he shoots off to another part of the school.

“You have to lead by example,” Berezny said, with his school-themed tie floating in the breeze as he walks down a long ramp and to another part of the school. “I want kids to see me every day. I want them to know that I am here.”

Each morning, students from a classroom will join Berezny in saying the “Pledge of Allegiance,” in singing the “Star Spangled Banner,” and will help recite the school’s motto and its principles.

Heart problems pushed Berenzy to consider retiring. He had to take two months off while recovering from surgery that placed three stents in his heart.

“It’s bittersweet,” he said of his upcoming retirement. “When you do something for 35 years, it is hard. Every year, it's been scripted for me. Now I get to write a script of my own.”

Christine Grantner has been an adapted physical education teacher for the Flint School District for 12 years.

She said she’s worked for numerous principals over the years.

“You can’t put into words what it’s like to work for him,” Grantner said of Berezny. “He’s positive with the students, positive with the staff. I’ve worked in eight different schools in Flint and nothing compares to Dan Berezny.”

“He’s energetic,” said Assistant Principal Linda Koory. “He was the kind of principal who never wanted his own parking spot. He is very unpretentious.”

When Berezny went to work at Neithercut, he worked with Suzie Hlavach’s father. She’s now worked alongside Berezny for 23 years.

“He respects his teachers. He lets them do their jobs and supports and defends them to the core,” Hlavach said of Berezny. “He knows every single kid’s name and he can probably tell you where they live. He is visible throughout the school – he just doesn’t sit in his office.

“He’s just a phenomenal leader.”

Hlavach said Flint School District officials tried luring Berezny away from DTM to become a middle school or high school principal and that they even wanted to make him a district-wide administrator.

“People will walk through fire for him,” Hlavach said. “There isn’t another principal like him.”

Berezny said he won’t be leaving the community. He lives in Flint with his wife, who is a truancy officer for the district.

He’ll also continue his work as a co-chair of Flint’s CANUSA games.

”I walked in here not knowing a lot of people at all,” Berezny said. “I leave here knowing a lot of people, and that’s a good thing.”

Berezny’s replacement will be Shelly Umphrey. Umphrey currently is
executive director who oversees elementary education throughout the
district.